Chapter 5 - THE NEW QUEEN OF THE NORTHSIDE
Three months later.
The Boise winter had arrived, dusting the mansion in a layer of pristine white snow.
I stood on the balcony, wrapped in a coat that cost more than my father had made in a year.
I wasn't scrubbing floors.
I wasn't hiding in the shadows.
I was the director of the DeLuca Foundation.
My mother was living in a beautiful cottage on the edge of the estate.
She was healthy. She was happy.
And I was no longer invisible.
Carmine walked out onto the balcony behind me.
He didn't roll up his sleeves anymore when he was around me.
He wore a dark wool coat, looking every bit the king of the city.
He stood beside me, his shoulder brushing mine.
“The hospital gala was a success,” I said, looking at the lights of the city below.
“We raised three million for the respiratory wing.”
“I know,” he said softly. “I saw the report.”
He turned to look at me, his eyes softer than they had been on that night in the kitchen.
“You’ve changed this house, Ivy.”
“It’s not as cold as it used to be.”
I smiled, remembering the girl who was terrified of the locked door.
“The house didn't change, Carmine. You did.”
He laughed, a rare, genuine sound that echoed in the winter air.
“Maybe we both did.”
He reached out and took my hand.
His grip was firm and protective.
“I have a meeting in twenty minutes,” he said.
“But I’d rather stay here.”
“The city needs its boss,” I teased.
“The boss needs his anchor,” he countered.
I looked at the mansion behind us.
The service entrance where Rocco had attacked me was now guarded by men who knew better than to cross a line.
The kitchen where I had scrubbed the copper pan was now run by a staff that respected one another.
I had come here to pay a debt.
I had ended up finding a destiny.
I was no longer the maid.
I was the woman who had tamed the lion.
And as Carmine pulled me closer, shielding me from the biting wind, I realized something.
The scars on my face had faded into nothing.
But the strength I had found in that dark kitchen would last forever.
I wasn't just a survivor.
I was a DeLuca.
And in Boise, that meant I would never be invisible again.
I leaned my head against his shoulder.
The cold didn't bother me anymore.
The fire inside was more than enough.
The world could try to break us.
But they would find that we were made of the same unbreakable steel.
Together, we looked out over the empire.
And for the first time in thirty-one years, I knew exactly where I belonged.
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The invisible girl was gone.
In her place stood a woman who owned the light.
